Chapter 21: Death

(Extra long chapter. Warning this chapter containes violence.)

Time quickly ticked by, days turned to months, months turned to years and before I even realised it, almost five years had passed... Actually... that's a complete and total lie I felt every single, agonizing second of it, it felt like an f*cking eternity!

Nobody ever really tells you about constant monotony of a primitive world, after i explored the village, which was really more like a town, and it actually sits on a cliff. It turns out that this place is called Estorica and is bassicly a evlen hotspot, not only was it very safe, being surrounded by forest and creatures and animals on one side and a practically unclimable cliff on the other, it was also coverd in a barrier that hid the village.

It was also picturesque with views of the sea a bustling centre with lots of inns and resturaunts it allowed them to relax and unwind but for me there was nothing to do. No phone, no tv, no internet, no board games, f*ck this place didn't even have cards!

Although apparently cards, dice and board games did exist, it's just that they were really expensive and most people thought they where not worth the money, only nobility and very rich people bothered to buy such things.

But stillI can't wait to get out of here! When I turn fifteen in about a week's time according to The system. The Cheif said If I awaken I can go and inlist at Mezzo's magic academy! Ha! little does he know I've been able to use magic this whole time! So the day I turn fifteen I'm outta here! Lana already left to do the same on her eighteenth birthday the reason she didn't leave sooner was mainly becuase she aged quite slowly and because of that she bearly looked sixteen!

My training with Marx and the others went smoothly, apart from Marx he and i got along quite well we would also spare sometimes turns out he's a retired adventurer so he was pretty good at fighting.

i never bothered getting close to any of the others in the end and just decided to treat them like friendly acquaintances. I learnt quite a lot: some sword play, archery, stealth, tracking, how to make various traps, skinning, butchering, what was valuable and useful, once i was profeciant enough i was allowed to hunt on my own.

I was really excited at first just to be alone and be myself for some time at least , also after every few kills I got another level up and thanks to Charles the materials i gatherd sold well, which was a nice bonus. But I had to stick to some strict rules. I was only able to hunt certain things at certain times and never to many otherwise it would upset the natural balance, also after a while levelling up became more difficult and took longer and longer.

Strong creatures were rare and the worst part was the fact that I couldn't even hunt them! Because I had to maintain my cover. Hunting weak creatures was tedious and time consuming and honestly didn't have many upsides. I still did it religiously as often as I could, every bit of EXP helps.

That was of course until I found a solution... Slime farming! Specifically water slimes they didn't require any care, as long as they was near water they grew and multiplied and they where practically harmless unless threatened, also they were insanely stupid I could kill one a foot away from another with zero reaction. But my main reason was that water was hard to come by hear, it seemed no one knew how to purify sea water which worked to my advantage.

I realised when you killed water slimes there bodies turned into a hundred percent pure water, apart from the core. My pitch was simple I keep the cores to sell and use, and the village gets the water for free. The Chief readily accepted. After that I raked in EXP by the bucket load, not to mention the cash i had to ask Charles to help me set up an account with a bank.

Yes they had banks in this world! I couldn't believe it and suprisingly they weren't that greedy they only took 1% of your balance each month for storage and insurance fees. Luckily we had one in the village so i didn't have to leave the village. I gave them my details like name, age and race which was confirmed by Charles.

After making my first hefty deposit I was given an small flexible metal card that could be used almost any where to pay for things directly from my account, a few places and people only accepted cash so I still had to keep a small amount on me but that was better than nothing.

The card was bound to me so no one else can use it and all I had to do is press my thumb on a symbol on the left side and it would display my balance it was bassicly a debit card. But now thanks to all of my work I now I only ever had to hunt for fun.

Most people knew who I was by now because of my water enterprise and also despite The Chief's warning, news still spread of a cultivator. I could only assume that was the work of Julius or his father Julian. I decided to keep a low profile and downplay my abilities and after a while people eventually lost interest but I was respected a whole lot more which was a nice bonus.

As for my other classes, Sarah and Hilda taught me about various subjects from the different races of people: Humans, Elvs, Dwarves and Creature-folk. yes, thats right not beast- folk but creature-folk! why? because there where was just to many variations of hybridization from insects, to fish, to birds, to mammals they all existed! I hadn't seen one yet, but the mere thought of this blew my f*cking mind!

Unfortunately I did find out that there was an archaic legal slave system exists in this world as punishment for criminals but while there where some humans, elves and dwarves due to a long history of discrimination and hate a majority of slaves are creature-folk. The only place that didn't enforce this system was Mezzo, in Mezzo it was legal to own a slave however no prisoners were forced into slavery here and no slaves were bought or sold. If you was caught trying to do so you was serverly punished and banned from the city. You would also be punished if you was caught openly discriminating creature folk.

They also taught me the history of this world or at least what they knew, most of it boiled down to general knowledge and religious beliefs. Beliefs which stated God's and angels battled devil's and demons for supremacy and right to rule over this world, the Gods succeeded in winning by slaughtering a majority of the opposing side while the rest retreated.

It is said that the devil's use thier powers to kill the God's believers bye corrupting creatures and bestowing them with power and intelligence and even creating monsters. (Hence the hatred and discrimination against creature-folk, people believe thier demonic creatures.) In response the God's blessed people with the ability to use energy to protect themselves and their kin.

Apparently this world was called Empyrean and I was on an island called Xandu and it seemed to fall into the typical fantasy troupes. Beautiful and deadly, full of creatures and magical beasts and dungeons. There where five countries, the capital of each county shared the countries name: North - Hiemal, South - Ardentia, East - Eurus , West - Zephyr and Central - Mezzo.

Chief Han personally tutored me in magic theory which was... well... complicated? No that's not right more like a total load of bullsh*t! A majority of it made absolutely no sense and the bits that did, didn't help!

The only useful things I learned from the Chief was the real differences between magicians, enhancers and common folk. While every person has and can use energy it varies greatly between individuals. common folk approximately sixtyfive percent of the population, only have and can use a very small amount of energy, Enhancers account for fifteen percent and are people who priotized close combat utilizing magic to literally "enhance" thier abilities with something like Aura's for example.

And finally Magicians accounting for twenty percent of the population and are people who prioritize mid and long range combat however magicians can also use thier powers for various other things such as healing, support, item creation and enhancement. They can create things from simple light stones to complex rings that can store non living items in a different space, as such magic is everywhere in this world and magicians are revered, making them a lot more popular among the people.

I also learned that magicians and enhancers are ranked based on abilities and power. Poeple don't have to get ranked but you get an identification card that allows you to travel around with much more freedom also you can't join the adventures guild without first being ranked. The ranks are copper, silver, gold, platinum, adamantium and finally mithril.

Not much else happened during my stay i solidated my friendships whith Marx, Sarah and Lana and could now consider them friends. As for my personal progress, i practissed a lot both in the real world and in my head space. I had discovered a that I could stack certain magical effects like water and lightning or fire and earth.

I had become much more profeciant at using all of my abilities to the point that I could form much more complicated structures and control larger amounts or multiple things at once. I could do some very interesting things, i was even capable of causing small scale natural disasters! Using Energy manipulation.

Unfortunately I'd hit a level cap at level fifty. Acording to the system the cap will Increase once I improve my cultivation level however it wouldn't say what level i had to reach and also when i did reach it the required EXP to level up will instantly double! luckily it's only a one time increase till my next cap however instead of 10 EXP per level it will change to 100 EXP per level!

Fortunately the system could store EXP for later so as soon as I improved my cultivation to the required level I will instantly level up and get a massive power boost. I asked the system to show the true required EXP. Jumping my current requirement of 500 EXP to 1000 EXP. I also asked the system to always show my EXP rounded down to the nearest hundred meaning even if i had 299 EXP it will show 200.

Oh! i almost forgot I got the system to create a profile screen it had my basic information and a hologram of me on the right side. My "Street rat" title changed to "Swift" and my "Beast Slayer" changed to "Predator". I also got four rewards from the Task "Get good" which gave me a choice of functions, skills or items created by the system. I decided to unlock functions as I had enough skills and i couldn't really use items as I wouldn't be able to explain where I had got them from.

In the end I unlocked a map function that maps a 100m area around me, long range teleportation that I can use once per day to travel to any destination on the map, an advanced training dummy that can fight and defend at various degree of difficulty and last but not least STORAGE!

Finally I got it the corner stone of a proper system it could store anything that wasn't alive and currently had a space of 100m cubed. I was so f*cking happy I walked around with a stupid grin for days after I got it. I did have to use it very carefully as otherwise I'd blow my cover because only spatial mages could do something like that unless you had a storage ring of course.

I could still use Stat points but didn't because i didn't really need to and i thought it would be better to suddunly be able to improve my abilities in a critical situation. So my current STATS stood at.

PROFILE [STATS] [SKILLS] [SPELLS] [MAP] [STORAGE] [HEAD SPACE] [HELP]

Name: Jack Black

Race: Human / Cultivator LVL 1 (Base +10%)

Age 14

Class: Elemantalist (+5%Efficiency when using elemental spells)

Titles: Swift [+15% movement speed ], Predator [+20% damage to all Creatures] Cultivator [Unlimited potential]

[STATS]

H.P 527.5/527.5

STM 527.5/527.5

NRG 527.5/527.5(Limited)

Level: 50 (Capped) [EXP 3600/1000]

[STAT POINTS: 81]

STATS (Each point is currently equivalent to a 1% increase to base STATS)

Body 60 (Requires 6 points)

Mind 60 (Requires 2 points)

Skills: 5

Titles: 3

I was currently laying on my bed trying to think of something to do. I had, had a growth spurt recently and was now about 6ft tall, my body was no longer comparable to any living person i knew of, it was more like It was carved by Michelangelo himself. With my jet black hair pale skin and ludicrously tonned body i noticed I looked erily like a depiction of Hades (Greek god of death). Amazingly my face looked a lot more like my old body but more handsome and honestly I felt a lot more comfortable thanks to that. I kept my hair about three inches long, just long enough to run my hands through it, it gave me a roguish look that I quite liked.

After my growth spurt I needed new clothes so after asking the Chief about it and thanks to all the money I had coming in i was able to buy a new coat, I went for a long trench coat style leather coat with a hood, I was also able pay to have all my clothes enhanced so now they changed size to fit me and I had a few colour variations for my outfit now though i mainly used Matt white, Jet black, blood red or royal blue the coolest part was that I could change the colour of each item indivualy and i could even control how shiny or dull the silver accents are.

*Grumble* my stomach groaned for food.

"Well I guess I've got something to do now, hmm... where should I go? The market? No, to crowded this time of day. a Bakery? No, I'm pretty hungry i don't think a sandwich or a pie is gonna cut it. Oh! I know the inn down the street serves some decent grub!"

I got up put on my boots grabbed my coat and left, after about five minutes of walking I arrived at the inn I went inside found a table and sat down I was greeted by a young waitress. She looked about twelve, brown eyes and hair in a single French braid, She looked quite nervous. It wasn't unusual to see young kids in establishments like this. They can get some experience working and are able to earn some money.

'She must be new here. She wasn't here when I when i came in a couple of weeks ago.'

"Good e-evening young sir" She stuttered and got a little embarrassed.

"You must be new here?" I smiled kindly and spoke in cheerful manner. You can never be certain of elves age but It's best to address them as they appear, they'll correct you if your wrong... Most of the time anyway.

"Y-Yes sir I started last week."

"Ah i see. There's no need to be so nervous young miss, I'm sure your doing a fine job."

She looked down and shook her head no. "I'm so n-nervous I've already dropped three g-glasses today and one went over a c-customer." She looked even more nervous now than before.

"Ah nerves is it? I may have a solution. Tell me are you here for expireance or money?"

She looked back down at the ground ashamed. 'Money it is then.' I got a few glares from some people.

"I apologise that was insensitive of me but I tell you what."

She looked at slightly confused as I took out twenty copper and gave it to her.

"Here for my rudeness." her face was priceless. Before she could talk I said.

"Now then for my solution to your nerves." She came out of her daze and stared at me.

"If you can manage not to make a mistake during my time hear I will give you a generous tip. How's that sound?" I held up a silver coin showing it to her.

"Really!?" She was dubious that I'd tip her that amount.

"Yep, really you have my word." a fiery gaze of determination lit up behind her eyes.

Ok then. Sir, what would you like today?" She said with a cheerful smile.

"I'll have today's special please and a tea while I wait." She jotted everything down on a pad.

"Ok' your food will be about ten minutes and your drink will be with you shortly. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No thank you."

"Your welcome." She turned around and happily made her way to the kitchen.

A few moments later she came back with my drink. She placed it down with a smile and went to serve other customers. After a while my meal was served. I had steak, mash and veg am with thier own twists is course purple mash, green steak and red veg. I eat slowly then when I was finished, I ordered some dessert. I ordered some simple strawberry ice creame so I didn't have to wait.

In no time the waitress brought me my ice cream I slowly ate it while thinking to myself about all the similarities between earth and here the language, the culture, the building designs. Everything was familiar, too familiar to be merely coincidence. I was pretty sure there where more people from earth hear and if there was that might be a big issue.

If other earthlings are here that could have systems, memories, items, weapons and who knows what else to help them. It could really upset the balance of power in this world. But the main issue was if they are here, that means someone or something is bringing them here. Something powerfull enough to do that is a worrying thought.

I was never a believer in anything like religion or the supernatural I was the type of person that needed prof to believe something. But after coming to Empyrean my world views where shattered if something like that was possible anything else could be real nothing was an impossibility. Initially I thought the system was what brought me here but after learning about supposed God's I had to wonder was it a God that brought me here.

With that thought in my head I finished my ice cream and signalled the girl from earlier . She had a very happy smile in her face as she had managed not to make any mistakes during my meal. She almost skipped over to my table.

"Did you enjoy your meal sir?"

"Yes it was very good, please give my compliments to the cook. You did a good job from what I saw, Here as promised." I said in a cheery voice. As I handed her a silver coin.

"Thank you so much!" She was overjoyed looking at the coin like she had just found a treasure.

"It's fine, I'm just happy you was able to overcome your nerves." I Smiled as I got up and walked out the building bidding goodbye to the staff.

Now I should explain why I helped the kid well... empathy is a b*tch it grows on you like a cancer and now I actually enjoy occasionally helping out the less fortunate. But the main reason was to lure out the scum! Handing over a silver coin like that in a public place, to a girl that in no way could defend herself, was practically begging assh*les to try and mug her or worse and once they tried I could have some fun without any backlash. Hahahaha!

I knew what time the restaurant closed the girl would be safe until then. I went home grabbed my coat and a cheap dagger I got from a previous "outing" and a little bit later i made my way back towards the inn. I took cover cover on a nearby roof top overlooking the inn.

'Huh... I never would've guessed I'd turn into a anti hero. I always thought I'd land up being some sort of monstrous figure that plagued the world acting interilly of my own accord and now I'm literally about to save a damsel in distress. Granted I did cause that distress, but hey nobodies perfect.'

As i thought that I smiled to my self with anticipation I couldn't wait to see the fear and despair in their eyes. Looking at the moons it was about ten p.m the girl should be out soon and no doubt those guys waiting in the ally were there for her. I had spotted them earlier using my E.P. (Author's note Energy perception.) Turns out it was the group of five guys that was glaring at me inside the inn earlier.

I changed the colour of my clothes to white, dulled accents as much as possible and used a silk scarf to cover my mouth and nose, and pulled my hood up to hide my identity. Then i used my E.M. (Author's note Energy manipulation.) to create a fog in the area making hard to see... well for anyone that wasn't me at least. As I made the fog denser the girl came out the store she was a bit hesitant at first seeing the fog but she slowly made her way towards the ally.

The men herd the the door of the inn close and came close to the edge of the ally ready to pounce. Step by step the girl got closer to the thugs then suddenly before she even knew what was happening they grabbed her covering her mouth so she couldn't scream they dragged down the alleyway to a dead end spot. one of the men the biggest there cast a sound proof barrier afterward the other men threw the girl to the ground as she helped in pain.

"Ah! Please stop! Here take it! It's everything I have, please just let me go!" suprisingly the girl was quite calm. She had obviously been through this before and assumed that they wanted her money. So she instantly pulled out everything she had and offered it.

"Yell that's mighty nice of ya, ain't it lads?" The biggest burlyist guy there said as he stepped towards the girl, he leant down snatching the pouch from her hand and threw it to his men.

"Uh huh sure is boss hehehe." A scrawny toothpick of lackey replied catching the pouch.

"The thing is... I want... more than just money." the man said slowly revealing his face that had a disgusting perverse look of lust on it as he ogled the girls body. I instantly made the fog thicker and shrouded myself with it.

"You!? why? You always so nice to me why do this?" She seemed to recognise the man in front of her.

"AAAAAH!" The girl screamed as the man ignored her ripping open her blouse revealing her top half he tried to kiss her and she bit him.

'Ha! At a girl!'

"Ah! B*tch!" *SLAP!* he slapped to the floor and went to grab her bottoms.

"I think that's enough don't you?" My voice echoed of the walls making hard to pinpoint where I was. The man quickly stood up as the girl scurried over to a corner holding herself sobbing.

"Who's there show yourself coward!"

"Says the monster that was attempting to rape a child."

"AAAH!" one the men screamed as I dragged him into dense fog.

"Together!" The leader shouted as all the men moved to the centre of the space with tier backs to each other.

*CRUNCH* *SQUELCH* *PLOP* the sounds of bones braking and flesh being torn apart berated the men followed by the sound of a man's head falling to ground in front of them.

"AAAH!" The skinny lackey with the money screamed and bolted into the fog.

"STOP!" The leader shoted but it was to late the man ran into the fog.

"AAAAAAAAH! AAAAAH!" a blood curdling scream came from the fog but then nothing.

no bones breaking no flesh tearing just silence. Then after a minute a figure could be seen walking towards the three remaing men as It got closer the men changed thier formation focusing on the front. Just like I wanted I dropped down silently behind the them as the figure got closer.

"Why'd ya run off ya pr*ck!? Wha' happened? Why'd ya scream? Is the other guy gone? " Said the leader as he saw the figure emerge it was non other than the cowardly lackey from earlier he was getting closer and closer head facing the ground so you couldn't see his face. The lackey got about three feet away and stopped, he silently nodded yes.

All the men relaxed and eased up. The moment I was waiting for. I rapidly slashed across the back of th men's legs immoblising them.

"Ahh!" *Thud* all three men fell to thier knees as they looked around they saw their former comrade looking down at the eyes rolled to the back of his head a slashed neck from ear to ear suddenly a gastly smile appeard on his face as his head tilted to one side his face became redder and redder blood pored from his eyes, nose, ears, mouth. The men where terrified at what they was seeing but before they could react a ghostly figure shrouded by fog appeared by the creature that was once there friend.

That was me of course I put up my aura making it hard for them to breath let alone talk. they all looked at me well when I say all I mean the big guy the other two where already dead he just didn't realise yet. I killed them earlier when i slashed thier legs. They where dead before they hit the ground.

The men beside him quickly turned to him revealing the same horrifying twisted faces as the man in front of him. I eased my aura a bit allowing him to talk. He was so terrified he'd p*ssed himself he was bearly able to talk at all.

"W-W-W-What are y-y-you?"

"I am cold breeze on your neck, the shadow at the corner of your eye, the constant presence in the darkness, I am the inevitable, I am DEATH!" my voice was distorted and creepy.

*BOOM!* The heads of his comrades exploded all over him. The headless bodies crawled and slither towards him clawing at his legs he wanted to screamed but he couldn't as one of the bodies had grabbed his mouth stopping him, it forced him on to the floor while the other corpses gouged and tore he flesh off his legs and stomach, slowly, painfully they worked their way up his body, leaving his vital organs alone so he wouldn't die instantly.

bye the time they were done all of his skin had been removed chunks of torn muscle and bone was exposed but he was still breathing still had functioning eyes, ears and mouth. i started to walk towards him, the corpses dropped to the ground as I got closer ceasing to move once again. He slowly looked up at me.

"Killl... meeee" is voice was dry rand scratchy it had no strength to it at all.

"Very well but know this upon your death you will relive this moment over and over again till the end of time." I said in a creepy cold lifeless voice. As I placed my hand on his head.

His eyes widened in absolute terror.

'That's it! That's what wanted! Die you absolute piece of sh*t!' I thought to my self as I activated flame aura on my hand burning him alive.

"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaahh!" he screamed in agony but it quickly faded as he died. I then incinerated his remains along with his men. I brought a cloak out of my storage and threw it to the girl in the corner she hadn't seen anything but she herd every little detail.

I left the pouch of coins on the ground i even added in a gold coin. i left the ally and cleared the fog, I kept watch and a few minutes later she emerged from the ally and hurried off.

"Ah, all in a night work." I said smugly satisfied at my result, as i made my way home. I got home went in washed my clothes hung them to dry as I went and had a shower. Once I was done I changed into some simple comftoble clothes I had bought and i went and laid down.

'Not a bad result today still needs some work though.' I thought to myself. I was thinking about the new uses for my E.M that I had found. Like controllingbody functions and blood granted the person had to be dead but the result was phenomenally terrifying I could only control up to the corpses at a time and i had limited control at three but the less bodies I controlled the easier it was.

I dismissed the system notifications about EXP and went to sleep.